I have a one block high breeze block wall ( concrete block - whatever they are called) around the garden. I need to remove one block to allow the water to drain into the garden ( been this way for years but the post man has decided to complain about it) . I tried knocking it out with a sledge hammer this morning but it wont budge. Is there a knack to this or is it just brute force? The wall is about fifty years old.
Thanks.
If you hit it hard enough with the sledgehamer, eventually something will give, but it's not likely to just take out a single block cleanly. Lump hammer, bolster chisel and goggles should do a cleaner job, unless you fancy splashing out on an SDS drill!
Couldn't you just drill a few drainage holes through the block instead?
Thanks. I cant drill drainage holes. There is already a drainage point there but it gets clgged up with mud and the water cant get away so it pools around the point. If I knock a block out, it should all just run off.
Ill try that when it stops raining.
Andy's suggestion of bolster and hammer should work well - I used that to take down a (non-structural) brick wall in my kitchen, and was surprised at how easy it was.
So should that universal UK.DIY tool, the Angel grinder!
cold cjisel and brick acid on the mortar..oh no. that will fizz the block as well?
Hire a concrete saw..bit like a huge angle grinder.
...and so, finally, Christmas arrives in uk.d-i-y
Nick
Whatever method you use, other than a big angle grinder, is likely to damage or knock out adjoining blocks too, as well as leave a very rough jagged edge. If you're wiling to replace its neighbours, a sledge hammer will suffice. If not, really you need a large angle grinder to get a clean cut. Even a 9" grinder will only cut partway through, so you'd want something even bigger. Sounds like hire shop time.
NT
Angle grinder - for once, an appropriate solution, run round the mortar joints.
You will not knock out a lower block from the inside of a wall. Not without doing considerable damage.
If you have no angle grinder, you could take a chisel to the mortar, possibly preceeded by drilling lots of holes right through. If you relieve 2 adjacent joints, it should pop out fairly easily.
You need to rake out most of the mortar around it first. Drilling holes in the mortar lines as others have suggested, or working down from the edges using a chisel and lump hammer. If you have a SDS drill or angle grinder, then attacking the mortar with that will also do it quickly.
Build a bridge over the water.
If it is *really* breeze block, and it might well be at that age, it's much tougher than modern "middle weight" blocks. I'd be going with angle grinder or SDS. If it is only one block high, you could try sawing down the mortar with a "masonry" saw.
I think it is breeze block. It is heavy. In fact the mortar was easier to crack than the block. I used the chisel to loosen the block out around the path ( which it sits against) and then down the seam before cracking it with the sledge hammer. It took me about 20 mins to get it to come lose and I pulled it away. But it was heavy pulling . I know the house has a lot of these breeze blocks around. There were once greenhouses on the site and a lot of the blocks were just left on the garden when they demolished the greenhouses. I had to move them ( I was younger 15 years ago) and I built up several raised bed gardens with them. When I got proper concrete blocks to supplement them I realized how much heavier the old ones were ( and they are bigger as well)
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